r/stockmarket
Aggressive Roth IRA at 18 – What Would You Change?
18yo asks for feedback on an aggressive Roth IRA portfolio heavily weighted towards US tech and large-cap ETFs.
I’m 18 and just started putting money into a Roth IRA. I’m trying to build this for the long term, like 40+ years, so I’m okay with some risk.
Right now my weekly buys are basically:
VOO 52%
VGT 15%
AVUV 10%
VXUS 10%
META 5%
GOOGL 4%
LLY 4%
I’m mainly wondering if I’m overdoing it with tech because of VOO + VGT + META + GOOGL. I also don’t know if 10% international is enough or if I should keep it simple and just put more into VOO/VXUS.
I know a lot of people will say just do VTI and chill, but I’m trying to understand what’s actually wrong with this setup if anything.
What would you change?
Your savings rate will have about 100x more impact than the specific funds you're choosing at this point - I would focus on earning/saving more before spending too much time thinking about your portfolio. With that said, S&P500 and chill. Got me to $1M before 30 - that's enough risk.
You'll get lots of opinions. Trust in yours.
Ensure your funds diversified, as VOO and VGT have some overlap, invest steady and long term, can't go wrong.
I would drop the individual stocks because they’re already components of VOO and maybe the others. Otherwise looks solid
Look at the overlap on those funds and decide if the differences in their holding justify holding them all.
Just buy all VOO and ignore the market for the next few decades.
dump the last 5 and put everything in VOO and VGT, either 50/50 per month or 100 in each, alternating months
Fair criticism. My goal was a simple long-term Roth with a U.S. tilt, but I get the overlap point. I’m reconsidering whether the single stocks are worth holding separately when VOO/VGT already cover most of that exposure.
For international, I used VXUS for broad coverage, but I see your point on adding an international small-cap value sleeve like AVDV instead of only using total market.
Would you personally run VOO / VEU / AVUV / AVDV only, and if so, what percentages?
I would not do individuals for a long term Roth. let the ETFs handle balancing for you and quit worrying about it. The monthly contributions are the most important thing.
I like it. Good job!
I'm a big fan of Avantis funds but I don't think you need AVUV with this set up. If you want a VGT tilt I'd probably combine VOO+AVUV+VXUS into something like AVGE which gives you all Avantis funds. Then you can still leave some % for individual picks.
Fair point. I looked into AVGE and I see the appeal as a cleaner all-in-one Avantis/global equity core. My only hesitation is that I’d have less control over the exact U.S., international, and small-cap value weights.
I’m leaning toward either AVGE + VGT for simplicity, or just building it directly with VOO / VXUS / AVUV / AVDV and dropping the individual stocks.
Either is valid. I'd say it depends how active you want to be with it. If you don't want to bother with it too much then your ETF stack is fine. If you want to be more active with individual picks then it might be better to have a simpler core so you don't end up overlapping too much. The great thing about AVGE compared to an index fund like VT/VOO is that AVGE is actively managed for higher expected returns. So while you cant control the weights, professionals are doing that for you. If you prefer to have control, then yeah you'd want to set up your own ETF stack.,
That makes sense. I see it as control vs simplicity. AVGE seems cleaner because it handles the factor/global allocation inside one fund, but building it directly with VOO / VXUS / AVUV / AVDV lets me control the exact weights.
I’m probably leaning toward the direct ETF stack for now and dropping the individual stocks so I don’t overcomplicate the Roth.
Can diversify to international portfolios like VT( Vanguard Total World Stock) and KSA(iShares MSCI Saudi Arabia ETF).
That makes sense. I probably don’t have a strong enough macro thesis to justify being 90/10 U.S./international, so I’m leaning toward at least raising international to 20–25%.
I also see the point on small-cap value. A cleaner version might be something like VOO / VXUS / AVUV / AVDV instead of adding individual stocks on top of VOO and VGT.
I’m not trying to overfit the portfolio based on AI or short-term macro, but I do want the allocation to make sense long term. Appreciate the breakdown.